Generally, a connector includes a housing and terminal metal fittings housed therein, and is used for wiring an electrical article such as a wire harness or the like.
Conventionally, there have been proposed various types of connectors so arranged as to prevent the terminal metal fittings from slipping off from the insides of the housings. For example, a motor vehicle employs, in an important circuit thereof, a connector having a retainer. In such a connector, after terminal metal fittings are inserted into a housing, a retainer is pushed inside of the housing from a predetermined direction such that the terminal metal fittings are positioned and fixed at predetermined positions.
The retainer for preventing the terminal metal fittings from slipping off, is small as compared with the housing. This involves the likelihood that, when assembling such a connector, the operator fails to mount a retainer or overlooks that the retainer has been defectively pushed in. In such a case, the primary object of the retainer cannot be achieved.
In this connection, a conventional connector inspecting apparatus as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,968 for example, is arranged as set forth below. At the final step of producing an electrical article such as a wire harness or the like, not only the attachment of terminal metal fittings and the crimping of electric wires are checked for quality, but also the attachment of a retainer is checked for quality. FIGS. 1 and 2 show the most typical example of prior arts disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,968 above-mentioned.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating the arrangement of a connector inspecting apparatus of the prior art. FIG. 2 is a plan view, with portions crossed, illustrating the arrangement of the apparatus in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 1, a connector inspecting apparatus D includes a detecting unit 4 for detecting the defective attachment of a retainer. The detecting unit 4 is arranged to detect, at the time of inspection of a connector C, the defective attachment of a retainer R, if any, such that a lock lever 43 mechanically prevents the movement of a conduction inspecting unit 2. More specifically, if the retainer R has not perfectly been inserted in the housing H, the retainer R transversely projects with respect to the housing H. When the connector C is inserted into a receiving portion 1 with the retainer R transversely projecting, a detecting pin 41 retreats to push an edge piece 42. This causes the lock lever 43 to be rotated in a direction of an arrow A1 in FIG. 2. This results in the engagement of the lock lever 43 with an arm receiver 44. Accordingly, a cam lever 3 cannot be raised to prevent the conduction inspecting unit 2 from being moved to the receiving portion 1. This indicates that the attachment of the retainer R is defective.
On the other hand, when the retainer R has perfectly been mounted on the housing H, the housing H and the retainer R are substantially flush with each other. Accordingly, the connector C can smoothly be inserted into the receiving portion 1. The cam lever 3 can therefore be raised such that detecting pieces 21 of the conduction inspecting unit 2 come in contact with terminal metal fittings (not shown) of the connector C, thus providing an electrical connection therebetween. Thus, the connector C can be inspected for electrical conduction and it is made sure that the retainer R has perfectly been mounted. If the terminal metal fittings have not been inserted into the housing H or if electric wires have defectively been crimped on the terminal metal fittings, no electrical conduction is provided.
The connector inspecting apparatus of the prior art represented by that shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, is useful to a certain extent in that the defective attachment of a retainer can also be inspected.
However, the connector inspecting apparatus above-mentioned additionally has the detecting unit for detecting the defective attachment of a retainer, and is arranged such that, when the detecting unit detects the defective attachment of a retainer, the movement of the main connector conduction inspecting unit is mechanically prevented. Thus, the apparatus is complicated in structure. In this connection, the apparatus is disadvantageously made in a large size. Further, the apparatus is arranged such that the lock lever 43 is engaged with the arm receiver 44 at the time only when the retainer R projects from the connector C. Accordingly, the apparatus cannot detect the fact that no retainer has been mounted.